NEW DELHI: Toll collection in India has doubled in the last five years. According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) collected Rs 56,882 crore as highway user fee at toll plazas in the financial year 2023-24. The collection was Rs 27,503 crore in 2019-20.The NHAI is entrusted with the maintenance and management of about 70,000 kilometres of national highways, out of the total network of 1,50,000 kilometres. The authority is mandated to collect user fees (tolls) on these highways in accordance with the National Highway Fee (Determination of Rates and Collection) Rules, 2008. At present, the user fee is collected for approximately 45,000 km of national highways and expressways. There are about 1,015 operational toll plazas maintained by either the NHAI or concessionaires.Post-Covid, the toll collection in 2020-21 was Rs 27,926 crore, which increased to Rs 33,928 crore the next year. In 2022-23, the collection further swelled to Rs 48,032 crore.Responding to queries pertaining to the annual revenue generated through toll collection in Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari informed that the government had declared all lanes at the fee plazas on the highways to be ‘FASTag’ lanes with effect from February 16, 2021, which improved the overall efficiency of user fee collection. “Further, the user fee collection increases every year on account of traffic growth, revision in user fee rates, and addition of new tollable road length,” said the minister.
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